Texas investment in 'emerging research' universities paying off

In an update released this week, Texas Tech University, the University of North Texas and the University of Texas campuses at Arlington and Dallas were added to The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education list of schools with the "Highest Research Activity."

A major state investment intended to raise the stature of Texas universities is paying off, as the number of institutions achieving one "top-tier" designation has doubled.

In an update released this week, Texas Tech University, the University of North Texas and the University of Texas campuses at Arlington and Dallas were added to The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education list of schools with the "Highest Research Activity." The rankings, updated every five years, listed 115 universities in the top category, including the University of Houston, which made the cut in 2011, and UT-Austin, Texas A&M and Rice, which have long been on the list.

It's a major achievement: The 115 schools on the list stand out among some 2,500 universities in the nation. Officials said it could not have been achieved without additional state resources.

But the Carnegie list is just one of many "Tier One" rankings, and most of Texas' rapidly improving universities are a long way from joining more elite groups like the American Association of Universities, seen by many as the gold standard in higher education. Getting to that level, and catching up with the likes of California, whose prestigious universities Texans have long envied, will take a lot more money, the state's higher education chief said.

"It's probably worth having the conversation in Texas about what it would cost," said Raymund Paredes, the Texas higher education commissioner. "Our institutions are getting significantly better, but they're evolving. They're not going to make these giant leaps into the most prestigious ranks of higher education quickly."

Paredes pointed out that the California schools get thousands more dollars per student than Texas universities do. Professors there get automatic sabbaticals to focus on research and receive stipends for research work.

"We have a really long way to go," Paredes said.

California dreaming

California was on the minds of some lawmakers in 2009, when the effort to raise more schools to the top tier began in earnest. California then had nine schools with the Carnegie designation, compared to Texas' three. Dan Branch, who chaired the Texas House higher education panel, told the Texas Tribune at the time that Texas was not viewed as "serious about investing in higher education." So lawmakers decided, in Branch's words, to "make a serious statement."

That year the Legislature - led by Branch in the House and state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, a UH alumna who represents Laredo - created two new funding streams focused on sending more research money to Texas universities.

One fund, which matches private gifts with state money, has sent more than $90 million more to Texas Tech since 2010. The combined $238 million Tech raised in private and state funding during that period enabled the school to fund endowed chairs and professorships and to buy research equipment. It also covered the cost of building a new petroleum engineering building.

In 2009, voters also approved a constitutional amendment to allow schools to begin dipping into a savings fund that had been left untouchable until it reached $2 billion. The fund, which at the time had about $550 million, was only available to colleges deemed "emerging research" universities - now an eight-school list - once they reached certain benchmarks, such as growing their endowments and awarding more doctoral degrees.

So far only the University of Houston and Texas Tech have reached that threshold, both in 2012. By 2017, the state is set to have sent more than $106 million in additional funding to the two universities.

Closed the gap

By some measures, Texas has closed the gap in the last seven years. It now has eight Carnegie institutions compared to California's 11.

"Without this type of support, universities like the University of Houston and these other schools that have now gotten to this league would never have been able to get there," said Ramanan Krishnamoorti, UH's interim vice president of research.

Krishnamoorti, who said he was "gushing" about the news that Texas had doubled its numbers in the Carnegie ranks, agreed with Paredes, however, that the state could do more.

"It's not just California - look at New York, look at Ohio, look at Florida or Illinois," he said. "We are the second largest in population but we really lag behind."

Still, he said, doubling the number of Carnegie Tier One schools in less than a decade is "remarkable." He added: "And let's be clear - this is something that without the state's push we could never get to."

Benjamin Wermund is the Houston Chronicle’s Washington correspondent. He previously covered federal education policy and national education issues at POLITICO, and before that covered higher education at the Chronicle and K-12 education at the Austin American-Statesman. He’s a Texas native and a diehard Spurs fan.